We All Need A Reason To Live
by ElishaNevaeh
Summary: Logan's old partner has been hunting him for months, but when she finds him will she be able to forgive him for what he did to her? I only own my OC Taylor Risman/X13. Please read and review. Enjoy!


From my perch in the tree I watched as the students of Xavier Institute headed to school. Once the last car was through the gate I jumped and landed on the ground without a sound. I ran toward the front door, but before I reached it I saw movement in a building at the side of the mansion. I stopped and pressed myself against the side of the building ducking behind a bush as a motorcycle drove by. As soon as it was in front of me I pounced throwing it's rider a few yards away. I landed on top of him and punched my claws into the ground by his head. After months of hunting I had finally found the person I was looking for.

"What the hells the matter with you kid?" He growled in the same husky voice I remembered. My white hair fell around my face and blocked him from seeing who I was.

"You abandoned me!" I shouted in his face. He threw me off of him and made his claws come out.

"What are you talking about? Who are you?" He said.

"A memory that you decided to forget." I said lunging at him. He dodged my attack and I skidded to a halt on the ground. I heard him come up behind me and swung my leg around making him fall. I went to jump on him, but he put his feet up and kicked me away. I dug my claws into the ground to stop myself and looked up at him.

"Why are you attacking me?" He said as we charged at each other.

"You left me in that place to die!" I shouted as he dodged me again. Logan's eyed widened and he stepped back in surprise. I ran at him again and he grabbed my wrists.

"Who are you?" He asked. I looked up at him and I knew that he could see the tears streaming from my eyes.

"You left me there and never came back. You never came back for me." I said retracting my claws. His eyes widened further as I looked down at the ground.

"X13." He said a little louder than a whisper. My head shot up and I glared at him pulling my wrists out of his grasp.

"Don't ever call me that!" I yelled at him stepping back. He reached out and pulled me into a hug.

"Why didn't you come back? Why did you leave me?" I sobbed into his chest.

"I'm sorry. I should have come back, but I couldn't." He said softly. I looked up at him.

We walked toward the front of the institute. We went inside and headed to professor Xavier's office.

"Charles, this is X13." Logan said as we stood in front of the professor's desk.

"Ah yes, the former X13. Welcome to Xavier Institute. I hope you'll feel comfortable here with the other students. Logan, would you show our new friend to her room please?" The professor said. With that we left and headed to one of the empty rooms.

"This'll be your room." Logan said opening the door. I got ready to walk into the room, but he put a hand on my arm to stop me.

"Umm…if you need anything I'm right down the hall. Okay?" He said looking into my eyes. I smiled at him and nodded walking into the room. I threw myself onto the bed and clutched the pillow to my chest breathing in the clean scent. Suddenly I sat up remembering something that I hadn't thought of when I first came in the room. I looked down at myself and realized that I had been wearing the same clothes for the past three months.

"What is it kid?" Logan asked opening the door.

"I don't have any clothes." I said looking at the floor. A little while later we were at the Bayville mall. We went to all of the stores I wanted to go to and Logan bought me whatever I wanted. By the time we left I had an entirely new wardrobe. When we got back to the institute he helped me carry my new stuff up to my room and put it away. As he got ready to walk out of the room I stopped him.

"Thanks Logan." I said giving him a hug. He paused before lightly hugging me back. I could tell that he was a little uncomfortable so I let go and closed the door. I walked over to the bed and pulled a piece of paper from my pocket. It was an old photo from before Logan escaped from S.H.I.E.L.D and came here. We were standing outside near the woods and Logan was smiling with his arm wrapped around my shoulders. I was laughing and hugging him. Back then I never thought that he would leave; I never thought that he would escape and leave me there. I put the picture under my pillow and walked over to my dresser. Pulling out a black pajama top with blue trim, a pair of black pajama shorts, and clean under garments I walked to the door. It took me a minute to figure out where the bathroom was, but I eventually found it and went to take a nice hot bath. After soaking in the tub for almost an hour I turned on the shower and rinsed my hair. I walked out of the bathroom with my towel draped around my shoulders as I tried my hair. A few minutes later I was back in my room reading one of the new books Logan had bought me. I had always liked books so he had stopped at one of the book stores in the mall and picked out a few good ones for me. A few hours had passed and I heard a knock on my door. I opened it and saw the professor and Logan standing there.

"X13, the other students are back from school if you would like to meet them." Charles said. I put my book on the stand by the door and turned off the light following them to the elevator. I stopped outside the doors and just stared as they the professor got in.

"Uh… Charles, she doesn't like elevators." Logan said stopping beside me.

"Well, then you two can take the stairs and I'll meet you down stairs." Charles said as the doors closed. Logan and I walked down the stairs and met the professor at the bottom. We went to the living room and saw a bunch of kids around my age watching TV and talking. The professor cleared his throat and everyone looked at us.

"Everyone, I would like you to meet X13. She arrived this morning and is going to be staying with us for a while, so I want you all to make here feel at home here." The professor said.

"Hi, I'm Rahne, but you can call me Woflsbane." A girl with pigtails said walking up to me, "That's Sam, Ray, Amara, Jubilee, Bobby, Jamie, and Roberto." She pointed to each person as she said their name and they waved. I heard someone walk up behind me and instinctively spun around ready to attack. My claws stopped a few centimeters from their throat and I stopped.

"It's alright. Kurt's one of us." The professor said calmly. I brought my hand down and looked at the boy in front of me. He was blue and had a tail and pointy ears. There was a red haired girl and a boy with sunglasses behind him.

"H-hi I'm Kurt Wagner." He said holding out his hand. I looked at him then down at his hand, but did nothing else.

"She doesn't shake hands, Elf." Logan said pushing Kurt's hand back down. I looked up at Kurt and smiled.

"I'm Jean." The red haired girl said stepping forward, "That's Scott." The boy with the glasses nodded and waved when his name was said.

"Oh, Rogue, Kitty, there you are!" Kurt said as two more girls walked into the room. I could tell just by there names and the way they dress which one was which. A few weeks passed and I was in my room reading. After about three hours of reading I got thirsty and headed to the kitchen to grab a soda. I opened the fridge and pulled out a Dr. Pepper. I was half way through my soda when something outside caught my eye. I finished the soda and threw the can in the trash before walking outside. I got down the front stairs before someone grabbed my hand and I spun around. Lights came on and I saw that there was a S.H.I.E.L.D helicopter sitting in front of us. Logan stepped in front of me as Nick Fury stepped out of the helicopter.

"Give us the girl, Wolverine." Fury said stepping toward us. Logan pushed me behind him and made his claws come out.

"Leave her alone bub." Logan said through clenched teeth.

"Logan hand her over now." Fury said impatiently.

"She's just a girl. Why can't you just leave her alone?" Logan growled. I huddled close to his back as they argued.

"She's a weapon that can't be controlled." Fury said.

"Why do you think that you can control her then?" Logan growled. Fury smirked and a blonde woman stepped out of the helicopter.

"We can control her because we have her mother on our side." Fury said. My eyes went wide and I stepped back. Seeing me the woman stepped closer.

"Sweetie come here." She said holding out her hand. I covered my ears with my hands and fell to my knees.

"No! You're lying! I-I don't have a family!" I yelled at her. She stepped back in shock and let her hand drop back by her side.

""Who am I?" I yelled. If they were telling the truth then this was my only chance to find out what I wanted to know.

"Your name is Taylor Risman. You're eighteen and you were born in Nebraska. I'm sorry for putting you through the Weapon X project but I had no choice." The woman said.

"All right that's enough of the sappy stuff. Get her in the helicopter." Fury said stepping forward. A bunch of men got out of the helicopter and surrounded us. Logan stood in front of me and wouldn't let any of them near me.

"Logan, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." Fury said. Just then I heard footsteps on the stairs behind us and turned around.

"I'm afraid you have no jurist diction here Mr. Fury. The girl has decided to live here and if she does not want to go back to S.H.I.E.L.D then you will not make her." The professor said coming up beside me. Jean, Scott, Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, and the others followed him. Jean helped me up and smiled.

"Don't worry; the professor won't let them take you." She said.

Professor Xavier I have specific instructions from S.H.I.E.L.D to attain and bring back project X13." Fury said.

"Well, then S.H.I.E.L.D better just forget it. She's one of the X-Men now and we stand up for each other." Scott said stepping forward. I looked up at him and the others and smiled.

"I'm staying here Fury." I said stepping up beside the professor and Logan.

"You have nothing here. If you come back to S.H.I.E.L.D you'll have your mother with you." Fury said trying to bribe me into going back.

"You're wrong. I do have something here. I have friends that care about me. They're my new family and I'm not going anywhere." I said smiling. After a little while the professor convinced them to go home and leave me alone. After they left we all went back inside and went to bed. I had finally found out who I was and where I came from, but I didn't care anymore. I was here with Logan and the others now and I didn't want that to change. As I crawled back in bed someone knocked on my door.

"Come on in." I said.

"Hey, you doing okay kid?" Logan asked walking over to the bed.

"Yeah. I finally found out who I am, so that's kind of nice." I said as he sat on the edge of the bed. He looked down at the floor and I reached over and touched his hand to see what was wrong.

"Are you okay, Logan?" I asked softly. He looked up at me and smiled for a second.

"I'm sorry about your mom. You shouldn't have had to hear all of that." He said.

"It's okay now. I'm here with you now and we can go back to the way thing used to be." I said calmly. He smiled and stood up.

"Night kiddo." He said walking out of the room and turning off my light. I laid down and sighed pulling my old picture out from under my pillow.

'The way things used to be. Everything was great back then, but can we go back to that? We were still operatives in S.H.I.E.L.D back then. He hadn't left yet and I never even thought he would. The day he left I felt like I was dying. I broke. I couldn't take the pain, so I shut myself off. Now that we're together again can I make the pain go away?' I thought. I felt a tear roll down my face and wiped it away. 'I just want the old you back. The Logan that I knew. The Logan I loved.' I put the picture away and started crying. I hadn't cried in three years until today. That night I had the same dream I had had every night for the past three years.

_**Dream**_

_I was back in S.H.I.E.L.D walking down a brightly lit hallway. People walked past me like it was just a normal day and I was heading to training. I stopped at my partner's door and knocked. When no one answered I thought he must still be asleep. I opened the door and walked in stopping dead in my tracks. The bed in front of me was empty and the window was open. I knew that he never got up before me and ran to the window. I ran out of the room and down the hall out the front door._

"_Logan! Logan!" I called his name over and over again, but there was no reply. I ran back inside and searched all of the rooms. Everyone watched me as I searched the entire base. After I had looked in every possible place he could have been I thought of the one thing that had never crossed my mind._

'_He left.' I thought to myself. I started sobbing and fell to the ground. I had literally thought I was going to die because I was in so much pain. My chest hurt and I was breathing heavily when Fury found me and took me back to my room. They searched high and low for Logan, but found nothing. After a month I realized that he wasn't coming back to get me. After two months I began to close myself off from everyone. I stopped going to training, I stopped talking, I stopped going outside, I stopped eating and eventually I closed myself up in my room. I completely shut down. For months I did nothing but sit in my room and wait for death to take me. People tried to get me to go outside, but I wouldn't move. After Logan had been gone for four months Fury told me that they had found him and he was living at a place called Xavier Institute. As soon as Fury left I looked up at the ceiling. I stood up and walked over to the door, opening it and stepping into the hall. People looked at me as I walked toward the front doors and threw them open. They had thought I was just going outside, but when they went to get me I was gone. I managed to hunt and regain my strength as I headed for New York. After months of isolation my sorrow had turned to hate. I finally knew where he was and I was going to make him suffer the same way I had._

_**End Dream**_

I sat up and looked over at my alarm clock. It was five o'clock in the morning and everyone else was still asleep. Flopping back down on my pillow I sighed and stared up at the ceiling. I had forgiven Logan, but my subconscious still saw him as an enemy. I knew that the only way to get my subconscious to forgive Logan was to confront him about what had happened. I rolled over and looked at the wall. I eventually fell asleep again, but thankfully had no dream. I woke up again at eleven o'clock and crawled out of bed. I changed into a dark purple tank top and a pair of black skinny jeans. I pulled on my fingerless gloves and combat boot and grabbed my choker off of my dresser.

"Good morning X13." Rahne said as I walked into the kitchen and hooked the back of my necklace. I smiled and grabbed a piece of toast and a soda.

"It's not X13 anymore." I said hopping up on the counter.

"Then what are we supposed to call you?" Bobby asked as he walked over to the fridge.

"You can call me Taylor." I said. I heard a noise at the kitchen door and tilted my head back to see and upside down Logan standing in the doorway.

"Good morning Mr. Logan." Rahne said as he walked in the room and sat down at the table. He nodded and started reading his newspaper. I hopped off of the counter and threw my soda can away. I tried to avoid looking at Logan as I quietly walked to the door.

"Mornin' Taylor." He said right as I turned the handle. I forced myself to keep looking forward as I answered.

"Morning." I said. As soon as the word escaped my mouth I walked out the door and broke into a sprint. I ran out the front door and into the yard. Seeing a few of the other students and a large blue man I ran over to them.

"Hey X13. You want to train with us?" Kitty asked when I reached them.

"The name's Taylor and sure." I said with a smile. Right now I just needed something that would keep me away from Logan. After giving it some thought I had decided not to ask him why he had left and just decided to avoid him. The big blur guy blew the whistle and we were off. We were playing the mutant version of tag and right now I was it. I saw Scott walk below me as I hid in a tree. I jumped down and tackled him.

"You're it." I cheered happily. I took off running and looked behind me to see if he was chasing me, but he had decided to go after someone closer. He tagged Rogue and she began to chase the others. We played until everyone had been tagged at least once. When we were done everyone went off and did whatever they wanted. Rogue, Kitty, and Jean walked over to me as I laid on the grass.

"Want to go get some ice cream with us?" Rogue asked as I looked up at them.

"I don't have any money with me." I said.

"It's okay. I'm buying." Jean said as they pulled me to my feet.

"Okay." I said following them to Jean's car. As we walked out of the ice cream shop I sighed and looked down at my ice cream. 'Logan used to buy me ice cream all the time when we were both working for S.H.I.E.L.D.' I thought glumly.

"Like, what's wrong, Taylor?" Kitty asked walking up beside me.

"Nothing." I said watching the ground as I walked.

"Does it have something to do with Logan?" Jean asked walking up on my other side.

"What? No! Of course not!" I said a little to fast. I could feel the heat rise to my face and knew that I was blushing.

"Tay, we're your friends; you can tell us if you got a problem." Rogue said walking up beside kitty. I sighed and licked my ice cream. We stopped at the park and Jean laid out a blanket for us to sit on.

"You're right. It does have something to do with Logan." I said finally giving in. they looked at me waiting for me to continue.

"I've been avoiding him all morning. When he left S.H.I.E.L.D I sort of freaked. Now that I'm back around him it's like the conscious part of me has forgiven him, but the subconscious part of me still hates him. I just don't know what to do." I said finishing my ice cream.

"Taylor is it oaky if I look at your memories?" Jean asked cautiously. I nodded yes and sat there as she probed my mind. She got to my memories from after Logan left and saw what had happened.

"Oh my god Taylor. You made yourself shut down?" She said in disbelief. I knew that she understood why had done that because she had also seen my memories from when Logan and I were partners. She hugged me for a minute then pulled away.

"Even if you did love him I doubt he would've wanted you to do that to yourself." She said very seriously.

"You're in love with Mr. Logan?" Kitty asked in astonishment. I nodded and Rogue and Kitty's eyes went wide. I couldn't help but laugh at their expressions.

"Does Logan know?" Rogue asked snapping out of her daze.

"No. I never told him." I said looking down at my hands.

"Well you need to." Kitty said looking at me with a serious expression.

"What's the point?" I asked.

"If you don't tell him how you feel then you'll never know if he feels the same about you." She said throwing her hands up in the air. As much as I wanted to ignore the fact that she was right I couldn't.

"So what do you suggest I do?" I asked knowing that she had to have some sort of plan up her sleeve.

"We'll set up a date for you and Mr. Logan and you can tell him then. You guys could go to dinner and then a movie." She said practically bouncing up and down.

"Umm…Logan doesn't like movie theaters." I said killing her plan.

"Kitty let's just take it one step at a time." Jean said getting Kitty to calm down.

"Why don't you just ask him if he wants to go for a walk when we get home?" Rogue said. So far I liked her suggestion the best. I decided to listen to Rogue and ask him to go for a walk with me. When we got back to the institute I went to Logan's room and knocked on the door. I waited a few minutes but no one answered.

"Logan? Are you in here?" I asked opening the door and walking in. I searched the entire room, but it was completely empty. I thought maybe I had walked into one of the guest rooms by mistake and started walking back to the door. As I went to turn off the light a piece of paper on the stand by the door caught my eye. I picked it up and read the scrawled hand writing.

_**Note**_

_Charles,_

_Sorry 'bout this but I can't stay here anymore. Ever since she came here I've been fighting with myself. I have to get away from here, so I'm goin' home to Canada. Please don't tell her where I'm going._

_ Logan_

_**End Note**_

I dropped the note and ran out of the room as fast as possible. I ran to my room and packed my backpack with clothes and other necessities. I pulled my coat on and threw my bag over my shoulder as I ran out the door. I passed Scott and Kurt as I ran down the stairs.

"Hey, Taylor, where are you going?" Kurt asked as I ran past him.

"To find Logan." I said bolting out the front door. I grabbed one of Logan's motorcycles from the garage and headed toward Canada. Tears blurred my vision as I rode without my helmet on. Logan hated it when I didn't wear a helmet. 'Logan. I'm not going to lose you again.' I thought making the bike go faster. Since I had trained myself to stay awake for at least two days I didn't even stop to sleep. I wanted to find Logan as soon as possible. On my third day of riding I stopped at a truck stop to get something to eat and three men walked up to me.

"Hey girly. I've never seen you around here. What's your name sweet cheeks?" The main guy asked as I sat at the counter facing away from them.

"Hey, he just asked you a question." One of the others said. I grabbed the bag of food the waitress had given me and turned around. As I went to stand up one of the men pushed me back onto my seat.

"Where do you think you're going?" The leader asked. I looked up at him and gritted my teeth. My claws came out and I held them up so they could see.

"I'm leaving and you're going to get out of my way." I growled the three of them held their hands up and backed away from me. As I got ready to walk out the door I heard one of them walk up behind me. I spun around and put the point on one of my claws against his throat.

"I can still hear you even if my back's turned." I said with a smirk. I walked out the door and drove off. I kept driving until I reached the boarder to Canada. I did what everyone else had to do and walked through the metal detector. The alarm went off and I stepped to the side so that they could search me. When I walked through the metal detector a second time and the alarm went off again I decided not to waste any more of their time or mine and made my claws come out. One of the officers stepped forward and looked at my claws.

"You're one of Logan's friends?" He asked. I nodded and retracted my claws. They let me go and I drove into Canada. As I drove toward Logan's old home I thought of how he would react when he saw me. I only had one chance to tell him how I felt and this was my chance. I drove up the drive way and saw his bike. I turned the bike off and walked up to the door. I knocked and could feel my heart beating faster. Logan walked to the door and opened it. As soon as the door came open I tackled him in a hug.

"Taylor?" He asked in surprise. I stepped back and looked up at him with a smile.

"You didn't really think I would let you leave me twice, did you?" I said trying to hold back tears. The past three days I hadn't seen him had seemed like hell.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"You left before I could tell you, so I came after you." I said.

"Damn it. I told Charles not to tell you." He said pulling me into the house.

"He didn't tell me. I'm the one that found the note." I said as he closed the door and looked at me.

"What did you want to tell me?" He asked staring at me. I paused for a second and looked down at the floor.

"Do you remember how I was when we were working for S.H.I.E.L.D? How I never gave up? I did all of that for you, so that you would feel the same way I did. After you left I lost my reason to live, so I closed myself off from everyone and shut down. When they told me they had found you I left and went to find you." I said.

"Why did you do that? I'm not that important." Logan said. My head shot up and I started to cry.

"You're important to me. You're the most important thing in my life and you tried to leave me again." I said crying softly. Logan reached out and hugged me.

"Taylor, I've wanted to tell you something ever since we were partners in S.H.I.E.L.D." He took a small step back and looked down at me.

"I've wanted to tell you something too." I said with a smile.

"Taylor, I'm not very good at this kind of stuff, so I'm just going to say it. I love you." Logan said looking away. My eyes widened and I turned his head so that he was looking at me again. I crashed my lips against his and hugged him.

"I love you too, Logan." I said breaking the kiss I had waited years for. We stood there and just hugged and kissed each other for a while. Finally we decided to head back to the institute. Logan got his things and we left. We crossed the border and headed for New York. The next day we stopped at the same truck stop I had stopped at the day before. I sat at the counter and ordered us some food while Logan gassed up the bikes.

"Well look who's back?" A man behind me said. I turned around and saw the same three guys who had been bugging me before.

"Didn't you guys figure it out yesterday?" I asked with a smirk.

"We figure something out all right. You're a mutant so you can't hurt us." The leader said as the other two grabbed my arms.

"I'd let go of her if I were you." Logan said walking in and making his claws come out.

"What are you going to do about it? You're not aloud to hurt us either you stupid mutant." One of the guys said looking at Logan.

"Yeah well I've never really been one to follow the rules, and neither has she." He said pointing at me as my claws came out, "Now leave my girlfriend alone." The two guys let go of my arms and they all stepped away. Logan walked over and put his arm around my waist. I grabbed our bag of food off of the counter and put our money in its place.

"Thanks Mary." I called to the waitress as we walked out the door. The next day we were back at the institute.

"I'm surprised that none of you guys came after us." Logan said as we all converged in the kitchen.

"Well, we figured that you two needed some time to straighten things out." Jean said with a smile. I looked up from my soda and eyed her suspiciously.

"About a week ago Logan told me how he felt about you. When you said that you felt the same about him I sort of gave you a push in the right direction." Jean said. I smiled and started laughing. It seemed that everyone knew that we loved each other except for us. We all laughed and talked for a few hours before heading to bed.

"Night Taylor." Logan said standing outside my door.

"Night Logan." I said giving him a kiss. We kissed for a few minutes then broke the kiss. I didn't want to let go of him, but I knew that we had to go to bed. We reluctantly let go of each other and went into our rooms. I slipped into my pajamas and laid down on my bed. I was almost asleep when I head my door come open. I sat up in bed and stared at the figure in my doorway.

"Umm…I-I couldn't sleep." Logan said walking over to my bed. I smiled and patted the mattress beside me. Logan crawled into bed and wrapped his arms around me. We fell asleep a little while later in each others arms. The next morning I crawled out of bed and went down stairs to the kitchen for breakfast. I did my normal routine of grabbing a soda and sitting on the counter. I heard the kitchen door open and saw Logan standing in the doorway.

"Good morning, Logan." I said cheerfully. He looked over at me and smiled giving me a kiss as he walked by. He got his coffee and came over to stand beside me. Later we decided to go for a walk together.

"Hey Logan, can I ask you something?" I said softly as we walked through the park.

"Sure." He said looking over at me.

"Why did you leave the other day and go back to Canada?" I asked looking up at him. He sighed and looked forward.

"I had to get away for a little while. Being around you again was driving me crazy. I wanted to tell you how I felt, but I couldn't." He said looking at me again, "I'm sorry I felt you before and I'm sorry I tried to leave you again. When I saw you at my front door I had to keep myself from kissing you. You're my reason for living." We had stopped under a large oak tree and had turned to face each other. Logan leaned down and kissed me with all the passion in the world and I could have sworn that I was going to die. This was what I had been waiting for; this was my reason for living.


End file.
